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21.1.18

Stacie on the Road:- "Cologne..."

A "Bucket List" event of mine has always been to visit a classic, traditional German Christmas Market. Now I'm not talking about those lame ones that seem to pop up here in England and have just random things on that are actually British and try and trick you into believing they're from another country, I'm talking about a genuine German Market with mulled wine, traditional german snacks and food, little trinkets and all that type of thing and probably the main thing, IN GERMANY.

So before Christmas Mark and I headed off to Cologne with the sole aim to visit Christmas markets. I think I can honestly say to date this has been one of my favourite trips that we have done. Firstly we had recently picked up my new Motability Car which meant we had much more room within the car to be able to store the wheelchair more appropriately and pack up the luggage so it wasn't an uncomfortable journey which previous journey's had been due to amount of things we have to take with us which ultimately lead to an uncomfortable ride anywhere. This time however it meant I could recline my chair and actually sleep the majority of the way to Cologne as if I were in bed. The problem being ill is that even travelling in a car can be exhausting and although you aren't doing anything my body is always working away so if I can rest even whilst travelling that means I can make the absolute most out of our trips. This trip we went on the Euro tunnel with the car and then Mark drove about 350miles and I slept through FOUR countries on the way there. Because I had managed to get that sleep on the way there though that meant I didn't need the recovery time that I sometimes need when we get places, so this was a complete and total win on our part, whoop.

Now we really didn't see all of Cologne as the aim was Christmas Markets and Christmas Market we did! There was 7 markets in total and we managed 5, The Don Cathedral and the Lindt Chocolate museum which I think was pretty good going. The Markets were so beautiful I loved them so much, they had this atmosphere that you just can't get back in England. Everyone seemed so happy to be there and around and everything seemed so authentic (to me at least, the naive foreigner lol). I wanted to buy everything and take it all home with me but I was good and restricted myself.

Each Market though had a special individual mug for that particular market, so Mark and I made it our special little mission to try and get as many of them as we could. As I said we made it to 5 markets and therefore managed to get 5 of the mugs, that meant Mark had a lot of Mulled Wine lol. We tried lots of food;- bratwurst obviously, a weird potato things that was like a hash brown, pom frites ;-), Crepes, these yummy biscuit things and many other delights. We didn't buy much while we were there but we brought a few cute little things that were more souvenirs a little house that you place incense in which I imagine little German children collecting over the years to build some type of little village which would end up being so beautiful. We brought a tiny wooden shepherd to go with my really tacky little Nativity that I had brought from John Lewis back home, he is so cute though and totally fits in with the little scene. We brought a knitted Fox who I've aptly named Arnold who we have hung in the car, I brought biscuits (YUM), pins to go with my collection and I also managed to buy wooden whistles for my nephews and niece who seemed to love them their mother not so much LOL.

We also managed to pop into the Cathedral while we were there and it was beautiful, it seemed somewhat on the dark side but still very pretty and very large. We lit candles for a few people as we like to whenever we visit one and although neither of us are religious it still feels important to acknowledge those that are important.

Whist on our Market hunt, one of the last Markets we visited was next to the Lindt Chocolate Museum and being the chocolate enthusiast that we all know I am we had to check it out. It was a cute little museum I think me and Mark thought that there could have been more but it was still fun to check out. I really enjoyed seeing the past packaging although it really annoyed me because "back in the day" they seemed to make this real effort with the packaging of everything because it was such a desired thing and quite hard to get a hold of it was a luxury and certainly not an everyday thing so they packaged it to look like this royal gift and they really did just look utterly amazing. I want that for us nowadays but I know that we're so spoilt now that, that clearly wouldn't and couldn't happen. I yearn for a galaxy bar to appear in a silk laden box with gold and bows and frills..... [Longingly stares at the ceiling.] They really were quite incredible and beautiful.

Overall though our stay and visit to Cologne was so lovely and I absolutely loved it! I kind of want Christmas Markets to become a tradition for us and if I happen to be alive by Christmas I hope we can go to another because I really did enjoy it so much.

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I'm in my 20's and after waiting 3 years,
I underwent a heart and double lung transplant because I suffered from a illness called Pulmonary Hypertension.

This blog is where I documented that journey and will continue to document all the amazing highs and the lows post-transplant. I hope to continue to raise awareness for both PH and organ donation and I would love for you to continue to share this journey with me.